But before many Bermudians mark their foreheads with ashes in the sign of the cross on Ash Wednesday, several will indulge in the pageantry of Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro or the pulsating sounds of Carnival in Trinidad.

In doing so, they are doing more than just dancing in the streets. In fact they are actually taking part in a time-honoured custom of "great feasting'' before the penance of Lent.

Mardi Gras is the traditional festival of feasting and merrymaking that precedes the season of Lent and is an ancient Roman custom.

Depending on the date of Easter, the celebration takes place at the end of a long carnival season beginning January 6 or `Twelfth Night' and is celebrated in many Roman Catholic communities around the world -- notably Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans.

Mardi Gras -- a French term meaning `Fat Tuesday' -- arose from the custom of parading a fat ox through streets on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

Revellers traditionally ate, drank and made merry during Mardi Gras in a bid to satisfy "the desires of the flesh'' prior to the abstinence of Lent.

Carnival enjoys only a recent association with Christianity and stems from an ancient festivals celebrated by Romans and event the ancient Egyptians.

The term Carnival is derived from the Latin word `to remove meat'.

According to Carnevale Venezia, it became associated with Lent during the Middle Ages when after many unsuccessful attempts to scrap the festival completely, the Church finally assimilated Carnival into the Christian calender.

It became the last festival before Lent, traditionally honoured as a time for abstaining from eating meat.

Carnival typically begins in midwinter -- on the Epiphany on January 6, or Candlemas on February 2 -- and features masquerades, parties, dancing and other assorted revelry.

The festivities culminate with a great `last fling' on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.

Another Shrove Tuesday tradition is eating pancakes -- hence the term `Pancake Tuesday'.

According to the book "Why in the World,'' pancakes were consumed because they were an easy way of using stores of fat, which were forbidden on and after Ash Wednesday.

Often, pancakes were cooked at monastery gates and distributed to the poor.

This Tuesday, Saint Peter's Church in St. George's will host a Pancake Supper at 5.30 p.m. Admission for the supper will be $7.

After all of the feasting of `Pancake Tuesday' and partying of Carnival or Mardi Gras, follows the soul-searching and repentance of Lent.

Lent is the 40 weekday period before Easter devoted to fasting and penitence in commemoration of Christ's fasting in the wilderness.

This year Lent will run from February 25 to April 11.